Laneway Presents Black Lips

26 September 2014

The Dirty South's finest rock n roll gang THE BLACK LIPS, have already been announced on the Falls / Southbound line-up for this year and today, Laneway Presents and Penny Drop confirm that they’ll be making headline appearances in Melbourne and Sydney.

Atlanta's beloved sons entered the year 2013 through a screaming cloud of sweat, smoke, blood, and beer mist, in front of a dangerously packed hall in New Orleans' French Quarter. If a band's bipolarity runs on a touring vs. recording spectrum, then the previous year was the mother of all manic spells.

After a spring and summer running the usual festival circuit in North America and Europe, the Lips embarked on an extensive tour of the Middle East. Until then, the last known American band to tour in Egypt was The Grateful Dead in 1978. The Black Lips started things off in Cairo, then performed for audiences in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Cyprus. Director Bill Cody chronicled the band’s voyage in a documentary named Kids Like You & Me. Watch the trailer HERE.

As Cody assembled his footage into the feature, the band returned home from the New Year's maelstrom and began settling into album mode. Songs had piled up over two years since 2011’s Arabia Mountain, "We went into the studio with about 80% of the record written," says bassist Jared Swilley, "which is a little more than usual for us. Joe (Bradley, drums) usually puts together all the parts for his songs on his own, and Ian (St. Pe, guitar) writes a lot of his music. I like to make mine a little more collaborative, like Cole (Alexander, also guitar)."

Recording for Underneath the Rainbow ("We were going to call it The Dark Side of the Rainbow, then we googled it and realized that's what they call that thing where you watch The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd and it syncs up") was split between New York with Thomas Brenneck, who was recommended by Arabia Mountain producer Mark Ronson, and Nashville with the The Black Keys' Patrick Carney. NME called it “a twisted, sleaze-splashed delight of a record, full of every bit the blues guitar chaos fans have come to expect from the Southern rockers.”

In speaking about the Black Lips, The Guardian poignantly spoke how “most retro, punk-ish bands are feted for their iconoclasm and commitment to playing hard, fast and loud. Whatever the current fashion, garage rock is a danger-courting genre that never really goes away.” Never has this felt more relevant.

Straight Arrows & Destiny 3000 in Sydney, and Frowning Clouds & Steve Miller Band in Melbourne will join the Black Lips at their shows.

St. Jerome's Laneway Festival is about leading new and revered seminal music. The festival has always been interested in finding what's fresh and bringing it to unique settings and surrounds to be appreciated by music lovers.

The size of the festivals, the locations and the way we encourage community all form part of the way in which the Laneway team strive to present a live music experience like no other.